U7:Relative clauses

A Relative Pronoun heads an adjective clause.

 

 

 

 

A clause is a statement or a question that generally consists of a subject and a verb phrase and constitutes a complete thought. Sentences can consist of a single clause, but they often include two: a main, or independent, clause and a subordinate, or dependent, clause.

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Exercises on "Relative clauses"  

Grammar 1:

Grammar 2: 

Grammar 3: 

Grammar 4: 

Exercise 1: 

Exercise 2: 

Exercise 3:  

Exercise 4:

Exercise 5: 

Exercise 6: Subject Pronouns or Object Pronouns?

Exercise 7: 

Exercise 8:

Exercise 9:  

Exercise 10:

Exercise 11:

Exercise 12

Quiz 7: study for your exams

Extra Information

Relative clauses (first type)
e.g. v He’s the guy who got me started running v She had a company that planned weddings.	v Identifies or gives information about a noun.
Relative clauses (second type)
v He lives down the street, which is very convenient.	v Refers to a whole sentence.
Restrictive Relative clauses(defining)
v Ann is the woman that sits across from me at work.	v Identify which person or thing is being talked about.
Non-Restrictive Relative clauses(Non-defining)
v Ann, who sits across from me at work, used to have her own company.	v They are not used to identify something but just to give extra information about the person or thing being talked about.
Note: We are going to pay attention on defining relative clauses.

Adjective VS. Modifying clause (Relative Clause)

An Adjective is placed before the noun it modifies					A modifying clause is placed after the noun it modifies. Either that or which is used with an inanimate noun. That is used informally with a personal noun.
SUBJECT	VERB	MODIFIER	NOUN		SUBJECT	VERB	NOUN	SUBJECT
Sam	sells	new	motorbikes		Sam	sells	Motorbikes	that/which are new.
He	collects	old	cars		He	collects	Cars	that/which are antique.
He	prefers	economical	vehicles		He	prefers	vehicles	that/which are hybrid.

RELATIVE PRONOUN	USE	EXAMPLE
who	subject or object pronoun for people	I told you about the woman who lives next door.
which	subject or object pronoun for animals and things	Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof?

That /Which

THAT AS THE SUBJECT				THAT AS THE OBJECT
That or which replaces the repeated noun in the modifying clause. The that-clause is placed directly after the noun it modifies. (A modifying clause removes unnecessary words.) Examples: The car is economical to drive. The car is small. (noun) The car is economical to drive. It is small. (pronoun)				That or which replaces the repeated noun in the modifying clause. That is placed at the beginning of the modifying clause and placed directly after the noun it modifies. Examples: The car is economical to drive. I want to buy the car. The car is economical to drive. I want to buy it.
	Subject of Mod CLS				Object of Mod CLS
The car	the car is small   that/which	is more economical to drive		The car	I bought the car               that/which	Is more economical to drive.
The car	that/which is small	is more economical to drive.		The car	(that/which) I bought	Is more economical to drive.

Relative pronouns

v Many relative clauses start with a relative pronoun, but not all relative clauses need a relative pronoun. Ø Who and that are used to refer to people. Ø Which and that are used to refer to things.

Subject relative clauses

v Ann is an interesting woman who sits across from me. (who refers back to woman, and it is                                                                                             the subject of the verb sits.) v Ann had a company that planned weddings. (that refers back to company , and it is the                                                                            subject of planned.)

v In the subject relative clauses, the relative pronoun is the subject of the verb in the clause. v In SRCs , who is more common than that to refer to people, and that is more common that which for things.

Object relative clauses

v Charlie is someone (who/that) I can trust. (the use of who/that is optional; they are the object                                                                       of the verb trust. I is the subject of the verb trust.

v My mother talks about the tings (that) she is doing. (The RP that is optional; it refers back to                                     things, and it is the object of the verb doing. She is the subject of the RC.

Note: Whom is considered by some people to be the correct relative pronoun in OR clauses about people (e.g., Charlie is someone whom I can trust.). However, in conversation, whom is becoming less common (who I used instead). Whom is mostly used after a preposition in the corpus, over 70 percent of the occurrences of whom are after a preposition.

Subject Pronoun or Object Pronoun? 

Subject and object pronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms - who, which, that are used for subject and object pronouns. You can, however, distinguish them as follows:

If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a subject pronoun. Subject pronouns must always be used.

           Sara is a good student.      She sits across from me.

Sara is a good student who sits across from me.

                             subject pronous 

Now, join into a sentences these two sentences:

She has never met the lecturer. The lecture is leading today’s seminar.

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You can say:

They caught the man who / that spied for China.( who / that refer to people)

I lost the map which / that she gave me.( which / that refer to objects)

She complained to the man whose dog bit her. (Whose refers to possession )

Choose the correct relative pronoun (who, which, whose)

1.  This is the bank ______ was robbed the day before yesterday.

2.  The man _______ robbed the bank had a big pistol.

3.  He wore a mask _______ made him look like Mickey Mouse.

4.  The woman _______ gave him the money was an old lady.

Relative pronouns used as the object of defining Relative clauses

Example:

That is the boy. I invited him to the party.

You can say :   That’s the boy (Ø, that, who, whom) I invited to the party.

Now, join into a sentence these two sentences:

That is the house. I’d like to buy the house. (Ø, that, which)
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